It's been a very bad week for the merchants of austerity. In Europe, the just-released statistics on first quarter performance show EU nations sliding deeper into recession. In Spain and Greece, unemployment rates are approaching a staggering 30 percent. In Britain, the Tory government took as good news the fact that the UK managed to eke out 0.3 percent growth. Even Germany, the prime sponsor of these policies, is on the edge of recession. You don't promote growth by slashing demand. Supposedly, fiscal tightening improves business confidence. But if some entrepreneur somewhere decided to break ground for a new factory because the president and Congress at last cut the budget, nobody could find such a person. Even the Washington Post editorial page, which has long been promoting a budget bargain built on more cuts, warned in its lead Sunday editorial, that austerity is pinching too hard -- in Europe, that is. How about at home?

What can we learn from Europe's misery? For our political leaders the answer seems to be: nothing. In fact, Washington seems determined to follow in Europe's footsteps.

It takes a blind eye for history and a deaf ear for economics not to understand that Europe's agonies could soon become our own. And let's not forget: as bad as things are in Europe, they can always get worse.

Democrats should consider Sarkozy's fate a cautionary tale -- and a call to action. If they rally around the cause of growth, jobs, and optimism, the nation will benefit and they'll rewarded at the polls.